There is an Indian proverb or axiom that says that everyone is a house with four rooms, a physical, a mental, an emotional, and a spiritual room. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time but, unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.
--Rumer Godden. A House with Four Rooms --
Basically, when our mental, emotional, physical and “spiritual” selves are in alignment, we can more fully manifest life’s richness and meaning. In order to do this, we must define what each room means for us and how we can actually live in them. Then we must commit to visiting them regularly. “Living in our house” is an active state which must be practiced daily to realize the on-going benefits. It requires conscious awareness, focused attention and a commitment to personal accountability. Ultimately, each of us must accept responsibility for what we think, how we feel, and what we do. “Living in the four rooms” helps to give us balance and deepens our connection to ourselves, others, and life.
The Mental Room is where our thoughts reside. Individual thought is at the root of every emotion, action and experience; it is our greatest creative asset and the pre-determiner in everything we do. To really live in the mental room, we need to become more self-aware, and developing our ability to be self-aware, will open the doors to all the rooms. In the mental room dwell the beliefs, assumptions and expectations that drive our experiences, and becoming more intimate with how they work is the key to greater mobility and choice in moving through our four rooms. The thinking process (and its branches of beliefs, assumptions and expectations) forms not only how we perceive our own well being, but also our power to change it. To connect to and renew your mental room, spend time in silence, focus on one task at a time, practice positive imaging, and increase your energy vibration by spending more time in positive thinking and less time in negative thinking.
The Emotional Room is where our feelings reside. Our feelings fill our entire body. We have more neural networks for feeling in our stomach and heart than anywhere else in our body. Most of us tend to think of this room as a messy place filled with anger, anxiety, resentment, impatience and frustration. Some of us ignore this room while others spend way too much time here, reacting on auto-pilot to life’s events, rather than using the knowledge of the mental room for balance. In fact, there should be a welcome sign on this room’s door for all of our feelings. After all, this is also the room where calmness, confidence, contentment, satisfaction, love, joy, empathy and compassion live. To connect to this room; pay attention to your thoughts, focus on thoughts that trigger good feelings, bring grateful, joyous, and peaceful emotions into your daily experience.
The Physical Room is where the physical body lives, our precious vehicle for experiencing life through our senses. There are lots of experiences of life in our physical room beyond what we eat and whether or not we are exercising. The focus in the physical room is on developing a much deeper relationship with our bodies as the source for our experience of being fully alive.
To accomplish this,we need to make greater connections between our mind and our body. The most important way to do that is to reduce the stress in our lives. Stress on the body can wreak real havoc, but its trigger source is in the mental room. External events happen constantly that can be experienced as stress, but it’s the mental room that opens the door for stress to take up residence in the body. To reduce stress and connect to the physical room; meditate and find ways to relax, develop your senses, rest often, get good sleep, pay attention to your body, drink plenty of water, eat with awareness, focus on your breathing (stop at intervals during the day and breathe deeply), and every chance you get… move, dance, exercise, laugh, play, and have fun
The Spiritual Room is where we identify what makes us come alive, it is not about religion or ideology. It is where we express our deepest values, where we determine the meaning and purpose of our life. Living in this room requires us to define what inspires us and brings us joy. Whatever the experience – being in nature, being with those we love, sharing ideas, caring for those in need, painting a picture, creating a wonderful meal, traveling to places we love – knowing it and following through with it puts us into alignment with the spiritual room. In this room, we find new sources of creativity, energy and peace. Here is where we discover what truly feeds us and whenever we visit this room, we bring all four rooms into harmony.
We connect to this room through, meditation, reflection, being in silence, service to others, practicing self-compassion, spending time in and surrounding yourself with beauty, doing what you love, and removing judgement (of yourself and others).
Living in the four rooms does not require a great deal of time, but it does requires your presence and awareness of their existence, and then your connection to them and regular visitation. Visiting the four rooms can be magical and a source of pure, perpetual wonder.
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